Originally posted by Richard Ellis
Yep....hanging around the local Radio Shack, perusing thru the Layfayette store on Union Avenue in Portland Oregon, now named Martin Luther King Ave.

It is indeed a small world, my friend. The very first speakers I ever built contained mids and tweets that were purchased at that Lafayette store.
As you say, it is now long-gone.

Cascade surplus, on the other hand, still lives. It has been a few years since I've been home, so it may be only a shadow of it's former self, but it certainly has made the transition to the 21st century.http://www.myspace.com/cascadesurplus

Originally posted by w5jag
I think the internet is a mixed bag. There is a lot of bad info out there. I am sure I have unwittingly contributed to that a time or two ...

Win W5JAG

I had lunch w a bunch of guys who all worked together at the same brokerage firm in the early 1980's -- just like the internet and DIY, the junction of the internet and finance has been a mixed bag. There is instantaneous transmission of garbage, purposeful misinformation and rumor (some of which it has caused the bank run of 2008). Same is true in the news business where little is vetted (of course the story about the un-vetted blue-stained dress proves its value as well.)

Among the great publications available from AudioXpress is "Audio Anthology" -- Volume 2 seems to be out of print -- great articles from the distant past.

__________________
Why, silly hare, are you fleeing from the fierce jaws of the lion now grown tame?

Back in the Dark Ages of the mid 60s, I lived near a Radio Station.
I made it my top priority to make friends with the Chief Engineer.
As a result, he allowed me to dig through mountains of electronic junk. Parts, tubes, transformers and even some working pieces of equipment. I took these treasures home and built some pretty good equipment.
I later became the Chief Engineer for the same station.

Speaking of Electronics Illustrated! What ever happened to the old wiring diagrams that showed Newbies to electronics how to put together an electronic project without having to know how to read a schematic? Many magazines like Electronics Illustrated and books on electronic projects always had drawings showing where each wire hooked to what component in a very clear, easy to understand drawing. That's how I learned to read a schematic! I would build the project by looking at the drawings and then compare the drawing to the schematic if it was included. If you are building something on a PCB it's not a big problem because the boards are usually marked as to what component goes where. But if you want to build an amp with point-to-point wiring it can be scary!
I think that's part of the problem today in the lack of interest by young people. They look at a tube amp project on the internet and think "that's cool! I want to build that!" Then they look at the schematic and become intimidated. I say, make it easier for Newbies to get started. Once they build their first tube amp they will be hooked for life!

Things were very different back then. I used to buy the odd electronics magazine, especially Radio Electronics, for schematics, or look them up at the library. Even though this limited you, I think that components and parts were much more of a challenge. The surplus stores never really had a full selection of components (i.e. you could practically never find a matching set of pots in the values you needed), and RS was relatively expensive.

One thing that I don't think that has been touched upon is that components are now starting to get harder to find again, as compared to say about 5 years ago when I could get anything I wanted at the surplus store or parts house with ease. Now, because switching supplies have taken over the consumer market, finding a transformer that is good for supply rails at a surplus store is tough. Online parts sources like Digikey are moving away from leaded components because SMD has taken over. You can buy on eBay or online surplus, but the total cost is higher for sure.

__________________
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts. Bertrand Russell

Audio Amateur was the primary source for what was happening in the world of DIY audio back in the early 80s. Ed spun off Glass Audio, when was it, back in the late 80s probably. I remember receiving issue number 0 of Glass Audio along with my subscription for Audio Amateur. I subscribed to it immediately. Dynaco ST70s and Pas 2 & 3 figured prominently in these pages as so many of us had these venerable foundations of DIY audio.

The beginning of audio on line was TAN, the Audiophile network which predated RAT by probably 5 years. TAN was a bulletin board, the concept of which is now obsolete. One needed a modem and a computer to access a bulletin board. This was back in the day when the standard modem was 300 bps. I was a technician for a modem company and had a state of the art with the blistering speed of 2400bps.

One would dial into TAN and download the latest messages. Offline one would read the messages and create a response and then dial back up to up load the responses. It is amazing how, over the years, many of the members of TAN (it was a pay service as I remember) went on to be part of audio whether as professionals creating products for consumers or went on to write for audio publications such as Stereophile and Positive Feedback. Does anyone else remember TAN?

Before that it was the usual: Smoke emitting re-organized pulled parts in bizarre configurations. Overtly expensive experiments that might fail, cheap experiments that might work - and plenty of lead, smoke, and electrocution. And, of course..the audio magazine, both DIY and High End review: Porn and instruction manuals for audio nerds.

It is always good to remember that such things evolved from the love of music.

So when we argue here, remember it's not really about the circuit, but how we believe it serves the music. When you are about to lambaste* someone as they don't seem to agree with what you personally understand to be 'true'....remember they are here because they love MUSIC and music FIRST...and the large majority of your anger or consternation with the given situation should dissipate.